


Bow Kid is a Friend

by DeckofDragons



Series: Celebrating the New Year, New Decade, and 100+ Followers Drabble Event [4]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Dad Moonjumper, Drabble event fic, Fluff, Gen, Hat and Bow's home, Light Angst, birthday gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 7,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22223599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Drabbles for my drabble event that heavily feature Bow Kid.
Relationships: Bow Kid & Hat Kid (A Hat in Time), Bow Kid & Moonjumper (A Hat in Time)
Series: Celebrating the New Year, New Decade, and 100+ Followers Drabble Event [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599667
Comments: 37
Kudos: 114





	1. Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble event request fic from abyssal-glory on tumblr (I'm not sure if they have an Ao3 or not and I'm too shy to ask, I'd gift it to them if I could.)
> 
> "ooo, can you do a moonjumper + bow father/child drabble? just something sweet and cuddly"

Moonjumper really wasn’t equipped or qualified to take care of a child. But he wasn’t _really_ given much of a choice; she’d chosen to stick with him and there was little chance he could change her mind even if he tried. At least he was better than Snatcher though, right? He’d never tried to kill Bow Kid, just trick and manipulate her into freeing him from the horizon. It had been successful though and now he was stuck with her because of it.

He was even helping her tidy her room. Her and Hat Kid had had a pillow fight in here a little while ago that he’d been forcefully dragged into despite wanting to take a nap instead; he’d won though so at least there was that even if his participation had resulted in a bigger mess than there otherwise would’ve been. It was sort of his room too though, he slept in her pillow pool, typically at the bottom, because Bow Kid had invited him to when Snatcher had forcefully kicked him out of the forest for very understandable reasons.

“There,” Bow Kid said with a clap after she placed the final displaced pillow that was still intact back at the head of her bed. “Now all we need to do is get the Roomba in here to pick up all the stuffing and feathers we miss and it’s clean.” She turned to smile at him. “You can take your nap now, sorry for disturbing you.”

“Hmm, it’s fine,” he said. He honestly didn’t mind, after being stuck in the horizon for so long he was actually glad for a little bit of excitement. “I’m not tired anymore. I will nap later.”

“Oh! Okay. That means we can keep playing? What do you want to do?”

“You are very excitable today.” More so than usual. “Is there a reason why?”

“I guess you don’t know, huh? Tomorrow’s my birthday! I’m _finally_ going to be as old as Hat Kid. For like three months but _still_. I’m super excited.”

Without access to the memories of the body he was currently inhabiting, Moonjumper wouldn’t have known what a birthday was. He was not an organic being and thus hadn’t been born so birthdays were a somewhat foreign concept to him. “I should get you a gift then?” All of the prince’s memories about birthdays involving giving gifts to the person whose birthday it was.

“You don’t have to especially since you only just found out. I will very gladly accept a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ instead.” She probably meant that too but…

“No, I will get you a gift.” If he was going to be in charge of a child, officially acknowledged or not, he was going to do his best to do it right. The excitement that lit up her face at his words said he was doing the right thing. “I will go sort that out right now actually.” He knew just the thing too; he’d already been working on it, he just had to put in some extra time to finish it in time to give it to her tomorrow. “So, I am sorry but we will have to play more later.”

After pulling an all-nighter, he managed to finish it a couple hours before Bow Kid woke up. “Happy Birthday,” he said as he presented it to in a gift box gotten from Hat Kid the prior evening as soon as she stepped back into her room after getting ready for the day.

She accepted it with a large smile. “Thank you.” When she opened it and peeked inside, her eyes lit up with even more joy and excitement. “Is this…” She pulled it out, letting the box drop to the floor. “It _is_! It’s a shadow puppet costume, thank you so _much_.” Practically jumping for joy, she hugged him.

“You are welcome,” he said replied, awkwardly hugging her back. Physical affection was weird for him but pleasant in a way too.

She let go to smile up at him. “Did you make it yourself or did you somehow convince Snatcher to?”

“I made it myself.” The prince had known how to sew and knit in life too and thus Moonjumper had the ability as well at least for as long as he had this body.

“Thank you, thank you. I _have_ to go put it on and then I have to show Hat Kid. She’s going to be blown away.” With one last “Thank you,” she ran off again, going almost fast as she could when wearing her sprint hat.

Satisfied, Moonjumper moved to the pillow pool and buried himself in it. He was happy she liked his gift so much, he’d worked hard on it. He could take a nap now though; she’d wake him when she needed him again.


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anon request:
> 
> "1) Thank you for telling me! I’m new to this blog, so I didn’t know. Take all the time you need! “Leave! You are no longer welcome!” “What? I don’t understand!” “You failed your only job, to keep the time pieces safe!” “B-but I fixed it!” “You have you proven yourself unworthy. You will be exiled.” Hat Kid ran to her ship in tears. “How did it-“ Bow Kid let out a gasp and tries to console her best friend. She knew from the expression on her face that the worst had happened. They hadn’t exactly(2) planned for this, but Bow Kid knew what to do. “It’s okay. We’ll go back to earth.”"

Finally, at long last Hat Kid was home. Though she couldn’t help being a little nervous as she parked her ship in the docking bay.

“You think we’ll be in trouble for being so late?” she asked, turning her head to look at Bow.

“Nah,” Bow said with a dismissive gesture. “Pilots return late _all_ the time. Yeah, we’re a bit later than _most_ people but not by _that_ much. Just uh… maybe let’s not tell them about losing the Time Pieces and all that.”

“I wasn’t planning to.” Telling anyone about that was liable to land the two of them in trouble. “That’ll be our little secret.” They’d gotten them all back so no one should be able to tell… unless there were more monitoring systems on the ship than they’d been told about. Surely not though, right?

The Headmaster and a group of teachers were waiting as Hat Kid and Bow exited the ship. None of them looked happy but they never did so Hat Kid wasn’t worried as she approached and saluted once she stood before them. Bow, being her co-pilot, stayed a half step behind her.

“I’m back,” Hat Kid said with a smile to hide her nervousness under her excitement. “And in one piece. So is the ship, my co-polit, and all the Time Pieces.” Which was the complete list of requirements for passing the final test and becoming a full pilot. The ship would finally _officially_ be hers now – she’d already considered it hers ever since the moment they’d ‘lent’ it to her for the test but now even in their eyes it was hers.

The Headmaster frowned at her, accentuating the already heavy wrinkles on his face and making himself even uglier. He frowned a lot because he was a mean angry jerk, Hat Kid was not happy to see him again. “According to my report, you lost all the Time Pieces and broke many of them.”

Hat Kid froze. “What? No, I didn’t. They’re all there and intact.” She’d checked.

“Yeah,” Bow added. “You can go look if you want. They’re _all_ there. Nothing happened to them.”

The Headmaster shook his head, making a ‘tsk, tsk, tsk,’ of disappointment. “There are sensors in the vault. You can’t lie to us. You have failed. Meaning you are no longer welcome at this school. So leave, both of you.” He pointed off to the side. “A shuttle has already been called to take you back to the planet.”

_Back_? As far as Hat Kid could remember she’d only ever been on the station that the school was part of. “What? I don’t understand. We got them all back and intact, that should _count_.”

His scowl deepened. Making him mad was never a good idea but who cared right now? Hat Kid’s ship was on the line. “You should’ve never allowed it to happen in the first place.”

“We _fixed_ it,” Bow spoke up now. “And it _won’t_ happen again, _ever_ , we _promise_. So please…”

“No! You are unworthy of being full pilots. You are both being expelled. I want you off this station in less than five hours. I have already called workers to come and repossess the ship. They will strip it of your belongings and…”

Not even bothering to fight the tears rolling down her face, Hat Kid grabbed Bow’s hand and yanked her back towards the ship. The Headmaster and his underlings shouted something after them as they ran but Hat Kid didn’t care enough to pay attention. She was _not_ letting them take her ship from her.

Once on the ship, she locked the door tight. It would only keep them out for so long so letting go of Bow’s hand, she dashed over the to command desk. She punched in the command that told it to undock from the station. But a red error message flashed up instead; the dock had already locked the ship in place.

That didn’t leave her much choice now, did it? Hyper jumping a docked ship was dangerous and destroyed the dock but it was their own fault for trying to take her ship away. With so little time on her side, she punched in random coordinates for the ship to jump to and pressed the button.

It rocked and rattled, the lights flashing wildly, Hat Kid barely managed to stay in the command chair. But they landed on the other side safely. Seemingly so anyway; no alarms were blaring to notify of any holes or other damage done to vital parts of the ship.

Hat Kid looked out the front window and the void of space surrounding them. They were now fugitives of their home world. If they ever returned or were caught, they’d be in _big_ trouble, possibly executed. So… what did they do now? Well first…

“We need to go around and destroy all the sensors that send stuff back to them,” she said, turning in the chair to face Bow who was getting back to her feet.

“Uh… yeah. That’s a good idea.”

It took a few hours but they eventually had all the sensors destroyed, including the ones in the Time Piece vault. Doing it gave Hat Kid some time to center herself and at least stop crying even if their newfound banishment and fugitive status was still terribly upsetting.

“What do we do now?” she asked as they settled down in the central room again. On the floor because they’d left the beanbag chairs in Hat Kid’s room and weren’t in the mood to drag them back out here.

“Uh… I don’t know,” Bow replied.

Hat Kid groaned and pressed her forehead to her knees. She’d never felt so unsure before. They didn’t have anywhere to go, did they? They were homeless now, on the run from their home world. Two lost children in space.

How could this have _possibly_ happened? It was _no fair_. The two of them had put in so much time and effort into becoming space pilots, they’re whole lives in fact and now they’d failed and had nowhere to go and…

“Actually,” Bow broke the silence. “We could go back to Earth.”

Hat Kid looked back up at her. “I… guess we could, huh? Do you think they’d _want_ us back?”

“Yeah, I don’t see why not. We should lie low for a while anyway since they’ll probably be looking for us. That’s the perfect place to do it since it’s one of the few planets with intelligent life that _isn’t_ also a spacefaring civilization or at least not yet anyway. So come on, let’s go.” She hopped back up to her feet an held out a hand, offering to help Hat Kid stand too.

Hat Kid looked at it for a second before accepting it. “All right, I guess let’s go back to Earth.” They could figure out what they were going to do next later. For now, just having a place to go where they would be welcome was more than enough.


	3. Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> krekka01: "Hi again! I'm not sure if I can once again ask for a drabble, but I figured I'd give it a shot. You know how there are some posters and magazines of Bow Kid's face in the Nyakuza Metro, implying she's some kind of celebrity? I'd love to see how that happened."

Bow was in love the moment she landed in the Metro. There were cats _everywhere_. It took all her will power not to run over and pet one of them. Hat Kid was going to be so jealous when she found out she’d gotten stuck going to a dumb boat while Bow got to go to what was basically Cat Central. … Though Hat Kid didn’t like cats as much as Bow did so she probably wouldn’t care much. But still Bow was now glad she’d lost the coin flip to go on the cruise ship because _cats_.

Petting the cats would be _rude_ – she’d learned that upon meeting Cooking Cat and petting her – so she resisted the urge as she started exploring. She had Time Pieces to find. She could admire the cats’ cuteness from a distance while she did so because unlike Hat Kid she had plenty of self-control.

That resolved died the moment she entered the first station area and saw her first train. It was pulled by a giant cat! Forget the Time Pieces and going home or anything else, her new goal was to ride one of those cats and pet it at same time. Her life wouldn’t be complete until she completed this task. If she died for it, it’d be worth it.

Before the train could disappear all the way into the tunnel it was heading into, Bow switched to the time stop hat and slowed time. She ran over and clambered up onto to train, reaching the top just before time resumed its normal flow.

She lay flat on the train’s roof as it carried her into the tunnel. It was dark and she couldn’t see. There probably wasn’t enough room for her to stand, she didn’t dare risk it. So she just put her hands on head and waited until the train car she was on finally burst out into the open again.

Jumping up to her feet, she slowed time again and started running for the front of the train. She slowed and stopped upon reaching it, looking down at the cat pulling the train. Too impatient to wait for the time stop hat to recharge, she jumped onto his back.

The cat seemed to flinch a little as she landed on him but didn’t slow. She hugged his neck, nuzzling into the back of his head and petting him. If he was bothered by it, he was too professional to show it and continued onward.

The speed they were going at was almost as exhilarating as riding and petting a giant cat was. Best day ever for sure.

On the cat’s back, Bow got a good tour of that part of the Metro. She even spotted a few Time Pieces that she took mental note of to return to later because she was too busy having fun riding a giant cat to get them right away.

Alas, all good things must always come to an end. The cat eventually dropped off all his passengers and pulled into what was presumably a resting area based off the way attendants detached the train from him. Which would’ve been fine if those same attendants hadn’t kicked Bow off and shooed her away.

Oh well though, it was late, she should probably grab something to eat from one of the food carts before returning to the ship for sleep. She could start looking to collect the Time Pieces properly tomorrow… and maybe ride another train cat for a little bit too.

When she returned the next day, it was to points and murmurs. Which was odd and uncomfortable. It wasn’t until she found a newspaper stand that she found out why people were suddenly paying attention to her. There was a story printed about her on the front page with a giant picture of her riding the cat pulling the train, having the time of her life.

Did this make her famous? Judging by everyone’s stares it seemed to. None of them seemed to be hostile either so… she was for sure going to use this opportunity to befriend as many kitties as she could.


	4. Bow Kid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "if it’s not too much trouble, writing prompt: bow meeting and befriending moonjumper, pretty please i just really want this to exist now, i want all the kiddos getting adopted and moon and bow stuff is cute but rare. oh or just snatcher finding out moonjumper has essentially adopted bow like how he totally absolutely has not done with hat kid ; which ever you prefer, if you want to do either that is"

When the first alien child had wondered into Subcon Forest, Moonjumper had been sleeping. His tendency to take _long_ naps when bored led to him not becoming aware of her presence until her first battle with Snatcher. Which was _way_ too late for a dramatic mysterious entrance so he’d decided just to not make one at all. He might’ve acted differently if he’d known Hat Kid was going to come around a lot to hang with Snatcher but it was _too late_.

But now there was another alien child entering the forest. She was perhaps looking for Hat Kid since her ship up in the sky looked similar to Hat Kid’s. Or maybe it was just some weird coincidence. Either way it had been _way_ too long since Moonjumper had caused trouble, it was finally time to do so.

First, he shielded her from Snatcher’s senses. Next, he silently disarmed the trap on the path she was heading down. He wasn’t going to let Snatcher interfere with his game because he was here to interfere with _Snatcher’s_ games.

Focusing his magic, he cast some illusions around the child. The trees, grass and everything else faded to shades of grey. The forest sounds dimmed and left behind eerie silence. She stopped of course, glancing around frightened. She didn’t try to run though even as thick impenetrable fog rolled in from the forest to surround her, stopping a couple feet away.

Manipulating her perception of the moon was next. Full, bright and twice bigger than normal, it shone down on her; the only thing visible through the gap in the fog. She looked up at it of course which was his que to partially exit the horizon and come down to greet her, making it appear as if he were traveling through the moonbeams to do so.

“Hello young one,” he said with a slight bow as he settled to float in front of her, a foot or so off the ground

“Uh… hi,” she said, nervous but standing her ground. She was very brave for a child, he liked her already. “Who are you?”

“You may call me Moonjumper for that is my name. I hail from the horizon.”

“You may call me ‘Bow’ because… that’s what people call me. Though, some of the people here call me ‘Bow Kid’. I hail from another planet and uh… I come seeking my friend. She’s about the same size as me, wears a top hat, and is a little bit crazy sometimes and likes to do dangerous stuff and get in trouble. People on this planet call her ‘Hat Kid’ and they said she likes to spend time in the forest with some big bad ghost guy. Which is _totally_ something she’d do. Do you know where she is?”

“Alas, I don’t.” Not exactly anyway. She was doing contracts with Snatcher, that’s all he knew. “I can perhaps help you find her if you join me on the horizon. You can see _a lot_ from up here if you know where to look.”

Bow’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Is this some kind of trap? You’re going to lure me to this horizon place and then do something bad to me?”

Moonjumper put a hand to his chest as if taken back in offense. “I would _never_ harm a child.” And he wasn’t going to harm her, not yet anyway, he was just going to use her to cause whatever chaos he could until he got bored. Even then, he might just let her go, depending no how he felt when he grew tired of manipulating her. “I just want to help you find your dear friend. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have the kind of friend you’d travel across the very galaxy itself to reunite with.”

“You sound lonely.”

“I am _very_ lonely. That’s just the nature of my existence though, do not worry about me. But would you like me to help you find your friend or have you chosen to view me as completely and totally untrustworthy?”

“Hmmm… okay, I’ll go with you. But if you try anything, I won’t hesitate to beat you up.” Oh? Tough talk for anyone, especially a kid. It was a nice change of pace from the frightened wimps Moonjumper normally found to play with. This game was going to be _fun_.

“Fair enough. Now let’s go, shall we?”

***

“Lukas.”

Snatcher grimaced as Moonjumper floated into his hollow. “What do you want?” he said as he lowered his book.

Moonjumper grinned. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What makes you think I’d do _you_ a favor?”

“Calm down now, you don’t know what it even is yet. So let me tell you before you get your jimmies all rustled.” Ugh, his recent adoption of the kids’ slang only made Snatcher want to slap him more than usual. He didn’t even know how to use it right half the time. “I would like for you to write me up some adoption papers please.”

“’Adoption papers’? Who the peck are you adopting?”

“Bow of course. Who else?”

Snatcher could not believe what he was hearing. He’d known Bow had befriended Moonjumper, _truly_ befriended him. How was a mystery, why even more so because it was _Moonjumper_ , but this was a whole other level of strange.

“You’re not fit to be a parent,” Snatcher said. “Even to someone like Bow. All you ever do is cause chaos.”

“Yep. She loves chaos. I’m teaching her everything I know about creating it.” Moonjumper’s voice was full of _genuine_ fondness. He _actually_ cared about her, there was no way he’d fake something like that for this long. And he was _teaching_ her his ways.

Great, just what the world needed; Bow being even _better_ at causing problems and with Moonjumper backing her up and assisting her. At least it wasn’t Hat Kid he was teaching because as bad as Bow could be at times, she was _nothing_ compared to Hat Kid when Hat Kid was at her most feral. Bow at least had a voice of reason buried somewhere in her mind.

“So,” Moonjumper continued. “Adoption papers?”

Well, him adopting Bow would only be an official thing by now. Nothing would change. They’d just have a piece of paper that said Moonjumper was her legal guardian. So refusing to draft up the papers wouldn’t do anything but…

“Why are you asking me? I’m pretty sure the knowledge you have from possessing my corpse is more than enough for you to make your own adoption papers.”

“Yes, but I like your handwriting, it’s neat. I can’t replicate it because you didn’t write like that when you were alive. Besides, I’m hoping to put the idea in your mind so that maybe you’ll finally officially adopt Hat Kid. You’ve had her longer than I’ve had Bow and I think it’s finally time you…”

“Uh… _no_ ,” Snatcher interrupted. “I’m not adopting Hat Kid. I don’t even want to, she’s annoying.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t love her though. And you’ve always wanted a daughter, when you were alive anyway. I don’t think that’s changed even if you say it has.”

Snatcher glared at him, wishing he could banish him back to the horizon where he belonged. But that would upset Bow which would in turn upset Hat Kid because Bow was her best friend and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with Hat Kid being mad at him. So… “ _Fine_ , I’ll write you up some stupid adoption papers but only if you agree to _leave_ me alone.”

“Okay, deal. But do think about adopting Hat Kid officially, she deserves it.” With that, Moonjumper vanished.

Snatcher scowled at the empty space he’d left behind. Like hell he was going to consider adopting Hat Kid. Moonjumper could adopt her since he seemed to be into adopting feral alien children anyway. Or Cooking Cat, she’d adopted Mu so she already had one feral child, she could have Hat Kid too. Snatcher certainly didn’t want her.


	5. Kitty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Prompt: Bow Kid loves animals (particularly cats). She loves loves animal people (particularly cat people), too. She loves them so much, she'll gush endlessly about how cute they are. Thing is, though, she tends to treat cat people (or any animal people) like pets instead of actual people. She recognizes this flaw of hers and tries to better herself, though old habits die hard."

‘Intruder Alert’ read the notification on Bow’s phone. She looked up and made eye contact with Hat Kid who was looking up from _her_ phone. Yep, she got the notification too.

“I’ll deal with it,” Bow volunteered. She was the co-polite, she had to prove herself somehow. And Mafia Town’s constant reek of fish was starting to give her a bit of a headache, she could use a break from it.

“Okay,” Hat Kid said, putting her phone away. “I’ll meet up with you later then.”

“Yep, see you.” Bow waved before beaming herself back up to the ship. The intruder was supposedly in the kitchen now so that’s where she went, running over and up the ladder.

She burst into the room, ready to pull out her new umbrella weapon should she need it. Naturally the intruder snapped around to face her. They were a… kitty cat! An orange kitty wearing a chef’s hat and uniform! Absolutely the cutest thing Bow had ever seen.

“Howdy,” the kitty said with a friendly wave. She had an accent that Bow had never heard before but coming from such a cute cat, it was adorable. “I’m Cooking Cat, I’m here to…”

Bow simply couldn’t take it anymore, she ran over hugged the cat. “Baby kitty!” she said as she started petting the cat’s head, careful not to knock the adorable chef’s hat off. Her fur was soft and thick and _wonderful_.

“Uh… I’m not a baby and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t treat me like one.”

Bow kept petting her because how could she stop petting such a wonderful kitty. Sadly, Cooking Cat ducked and stepped away after a few more seconds.

“No more of that,” she said, her tail twitching as her ears flattened a bit, as she fixed her hat. “I don’t like it.”

Bow gasped and lifted her hands to cover her mouth in embarrassment as she looked away. “I’m sorry.” This was the second time she’d encountered and alien race that resembled an animal species from her home planet. The first time, she’d managed to contain herself. This was a _cat_ though, how could she possibly contain herself when faced with a _cat person_?

But Cooking Cat _wasn’t_ a cat. Not want Bow thought of as ‘a cat’ anyway. The resemblance was uncanny but just like Hat Kid and Bow’s resemblance to the humans of this planet, it was just a miracle coincidence. So, Bow _shouldn’t_ treat Cooking Cat or any of her species like cats even if she _wanted_ to.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, looking back at Cooking cat. “You’re just really cute.”

Cooking Cat gave her look halfway between confused and mildly annoyed. “All right, I accept your apology. Never do that again.”

“I won’t.” She’d try not to at least. Next time she saw a cute cat person she might not be able to stop herself. She _would_ try though, that’s all anyone could ask of her, right?


	6. Defective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From krekka01: Hi again! Thank you for once again doing a prompt for me. If I've reached my limit for prompts, that's cool. If not, I have one other idea: Rumbi is alive. Well and truly alive, unlike his automaton brethren. The reason for his elevation to sentience was because when Hat Kid first assembled him, she used her ships' power (Time Pieces) to energize him, inadvertently granting life to Rumbi (due to time energy or whatever). It's why both Hat Kid and Bow Kid refer to Rumbi as he or him. Thanx!

They’d just got the vacuum cleaner and it was _already_ broken before they’d even gotten a chance to use it. And it wasn’t either of their faults… or at least as far as Bow knew, that was the case. It was possible Hat Kid had dropped the box or something similar when Bow wasn’t around. Doubtful though because she’d been almost just as excited as Bow was about getting one. It didn’t really matter though, it wasn’t working. It wouldn’t even try to turn on.

“We can fix it,” Hat Kid said with total confidence.

“You really think so? It’s alien technology,” Bow replied. “Also, last time _you_ tried to fix anything, everything broke.” It had taken Bow _forever_ to fix it too.

“Yep and that’s why when I said ‘we’ I mostly meant ‘you’. You’re super good with like mechanics and engineering and stuff, I’m sure you can more than handle an automatic vacuum.” Hat Kid bent down and picked it up. She gave Bow a smile as she held it towards her.

She did have a point. While they were both theoretically capable in that realm, Bow was significantly better at it. Mostly just because unlike Hat Kid, she didn’t rush things or get impatient. So… “Okay, I’ll do all the hard work and fix it, or try to anyway.” She’d never dealt with alien tech before so she wasn’t completely confident.

Turns out that doubt was completely unwarranted. Not even ten minutes after opening the machine up to examine its inner workings, Bow knew everything there was to know about it and how it worked. Including why it hadn’t turned on.

“It didn’t come with a power source,” she said as she strode back into the central room.

Hat Kid sat in the command chair, looking out the window as they hurdled through space. She spun around to face Bow. “You mean… we were supposed to buy that separately?”

“Apparently or maybe it was a mistake. Either way though it’s too late to do anything about it.” They’d already left the planet they’d bought it on. They’d waited until right before it was time to leave to get one because they’d spent pretty much all their currency on it. “Which _sucks_. They were so cute and I really wanted one.” They weren’t allowed to have pets but a robot that was also a vacuum cleaner technically _wasn’t_ a pet. It wouldn’t have been the _best_ substitute in the world but it would’ve been better than nothing. And it really _was_ cute with its little face and stock phrases when it bumped into things.

Hat Kid thought for a moment before hopping up out of the chair. “I refuse to stand for this. Let’s modify it so it’ll run on the ship’s power.”

Oh! Bow hadn’t considered that. It wouldn’t even be that hard to do but… it might not be a good idea. The magic in the Time Pieces was known to sometimes do weird things to even the most basic of AI systems. Bow had never been allowed to see it in person but it had been covered in one of their classes, it gave AI’s full sentience, not all but most. … Which actually meant maybe it was a _good_ idea even if it did break the rules. She’d always wanted to see that in person.

“Dibs on naming it when we’re done,” she said before turning to rush back into the machine room to start working on it right away.


	7. Cat Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i had a thought so here’s a prompt for ya if you’re alright with it; bow kid meeting the empress , i mean we already have her being the famous metro cat rider so just thought that maybe things would go a bit different for those two like maybe she’d get super excited and empress is like ummm how do i intimidate this thing nothing seems to work do i need to try something else or i dunno just bow kid road a traincat and loves cats so i kinda want to know how that would go ya know

The Empress was not at all surprised when the famed train-cat rider wondered into her store; most celebrities big and small in the Metro ended up coming in here sooner or later. Just like the image on the front page of the paper, the child was all smiles and joy, even walking with a little spring in her step as she approached the counter.

“Hi, I’m Bow,” she said upon reaching it, smiling even brighter now. “And you’re the Empress, right?”

“Oh, so you’ve heard of me.” Not surprising even a new comer would know of her. But then why wasn’t she at least a little weary like most sane people would be? And why would she approach?

“Yep. The other cats around the Metro whisper about you sometimes, most of the time they sound scared. So I wanted to come to meet you to see what that was about. You don’t look at all like I expected. I thought gang leaders were supposed to be big and tough looking with face tattoos and ripped dirty clothing. But instead you’re really pretty.”

The Empress scowled at her. “I’m not the leader of some street gang. I’m head of the Nyakuza, the most powerful gang in the Metro, possibly the world, I’m not going to dress like a street thug.” The mere thought was almost horrifying. She took pride in being regal and refined as befit her station as what as basically the ruler of the Metro. “I _suggest_ you take heed of that child and get out of here. I don’t like dealing with kids unless I have to.” Or unless the kid could be useful to her in some way. Which Bow _might_ be due to her current spot in the spotlight as the train-cat rider. But right now, the Empress’ main goal was gathering the magic hourglasses.

Most people would’ve left, even children. Bow didn’t though, she didn’t even look intimidated. Instead… “Can I join your gang?” she asked, seemingly both serious and excited by the thought. “I want to be part of a cat gang, doing cat crime! It sounds like fun! So can I join?”

How was the Empress supposed to respond? Bow wasn’t even afraid of her, the first person in a very long time not to be even weary of her. How was the Empress supposed to interact with someone who wasn’t intimidated by her and all the power she had?

“What makes you think that’s how joining a gang works?” the Empress asking, glaring and twitching the tip of her tail. A sign anyone _else_ wouldn’t taken to mean ‘be cautious’. Not Bow though. “Especially one so prestigious.”

“I don’t know. I was just hoping that that’s how it works, you know? So can I join? Pretty _please_. I _really_ loves kitties so I want to be part of a cat gang.” Meaning if the Empress declined, she’d probably run off to join a different gang. Not the end of the world but offering up a potential tool to a rival gang was never a good idea so…

“ _Fine_ , I suppose I can find work for you.” Sending her to collect the hourglasses might be a good idea. She was new so sending her into rival gang territory wouldn’t get her instantly jumped. And she was a child, she could fit in places even the nimblest of cats would have trouble with. The Empress would find a way to strike fear into her though, anything else would be unacceptable.


	8. Kittens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How would you feel about writing anything for the a-switch-in-time au founded right here on Tumblr?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically, the switch in time au is kids are adults and adults or kids. The Tumblr for it is: switch-in-time

Today was the greatest day in Bow’s entire life. There were kittens everywhere and she automatically loved every single one of them. It took all her self-control not to pick one up and cuddle it. She was here on a mission though, she had to at least _pretend_ to be a professional adult. After she collected the Time Pieces _then_ maybe she could play with the kittens or at the _very least_ talk to some of them.

So, steeling herself against their beloved cuteness, Bow took off to explore the metro. She gasped as the first cat pulled train she saw. It was absolutely the cutest thing she’d ever seen. She wanted one as a pet, she’d have to look into adopting one later if possible. Time Pieces _first_ though because if they got into the wrong hands, bad things could happen. Being a responsible adult really sucked sometimes. But on the flipside, she’d never forgive herself if any of the kittens found a Time Piece and hurt themselves or a fellow kitten on accident.

Thankfully she soon found one. A kitten in the central square had it. He ran when she saw him coming for it. He wasn’t very fast though, making him easy to catch up to.

“Sorry, but this is mine,” Bow said as she grabbed it. “It’s dangerous, you could hurt yourself or one of your friends with it on accident and you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

The kitten pouted and hissed but ultimately let go of it after only a few seconds’ struggle. He didn’t even say anything before running off. With a sigh, Bow turned back around. Before she could take a single step though, a group of kittens jumped out in front of her. They _looked_ like they were trying to be intimidating but failing miserably because they were too cute.

“That’s mine,” their leader, a taller kitten in fancy clothes, said. “Thank you for collecting it for me.” She held out her hand as if she expected Bow to just hand it over to her.

“What could you possibly need this for?” Bow asked, too charmed to be annoyed.

“I’m collecting them because they’re clearly valuable. So hand it over unless you _want_ to defy me, in which case you’ll regret it.” She gestured and her ‘goons’ pulled out little plastic baseball bats.

“You better listen to her,” one of them said with a slight lisp. “She’s the Empress, head of the most powerful gang in the metro.”

Bow hummed agreement, even nodding. “I’m sure she is but…” she pocketed the Time Piece, “you don’t need it.” She was the adult here, there was nothing they could do and the looks on their faces said they knew that too. “But since you’re interested in them, you can help me find them, how does that sound?”

The Empress frowned. “Very well, I shall let you assist me in searching for them.” That wasn’t what Bow had offered but whatever. “I’ll even let you keep that one as advanced payment. The rest however, shall go into my secret vault.” Meaning she was going to try to steal them from under Bow’s nose whenever one was found, probably with the help of her ‘goons’. Well, her and her playmates could try all they wanted, it wasn’t going to happen. And she was far too cute for Bow to ever dream of disillusioning her of her grand desires to be a powerful gang leader. So she’d play along with the Empress for a bit, it couldn’t hurt.


	9. Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May I request Moonjumper teaching bow kid about causing trouble and creating chaos? I really love your writing and keep up the great work!!!

Causing a shutdown of the entire Metro was far easier than Bow had thought it’d be even after Moonjumper had assured her it wouldn’t take much. A few bags of catnip strategically placed so the train cats would find them and suddenly they were all having a good time rolling around, high as kites, instead of pulling the trains like they were supposed to. Moonjumper had even freed them from their harnesses to give them full freedom. It put a halt to practically everything in the Metro except the food carts and stands.

“You’ve disrupted the lives of hundreds today,” Moonjumper said as they watched the chaos unfold from the horizon through a viewing portal he’d made. “Feel proud?”

“Yes!” How could Bow feel anything _but_ proud? She’d never caused trouble on such a large scale before, never would’ve thought she _could_. She did feel a bit bad about the Metro cats freaking out about not being able to get where they needed to go but they’d be okay and if it was really _that_ important, they’d find another way to get there. Beside watching the big train kitties playing with the bags of catnip was _adorable_. It _more_ than made up for any doubts or bad feelings she had about giving the catnip to them. They all deserved a break anyway because they were wonderful hardworking kitty-cats. “That was awesome!”

“And yet you doubted it was possible.” When he’d proposed the idea of causing harmless but large-scale panic in the Metro, she’d expressed her doubt about such a thing being possible. Turns out, he was right and she apparently had a lot to learn about making trouble. “I should’ve made a bet because I would’ve won. Oh well, too late now.” He shrugged and smiled at her.

Bow was tempted to hug him but he wouldn’t have appreciated it so she refrained. “What _other_ kind of chaos can we cause?” This one instance had been fun, she wanted more. “Maybe we can ruin all of the Mafia’s day too?” And help out Mu some in the process. “Or prank Snatcher and Hat Kid? I think they’re doing the Death Wish Contracts right now, aren’t they? _Or_ maybe we can peck with Vanessa in the manor because she’s a bitch.” Bow had never seen or interacted with Venessa in anyway but Hat Kid had told her about her and Moonjumper and Snatcher sometimes talked about her too and it was pretty clear that she _deserved_ to be messed with.

“Hmm… all very good ideas. I have a bias for pranking Lukas but alas, I do not believe you’d enjoy the kind of pranks I tend to play on him. _So_ let’s help your little friend on the island out some and cause havoc for the Mafia instead, shall we?”

“Sounds like a plan!” And this time the havoc they caused probably wouldn’t be harmless. That was okay though, the Mafia deserved it.


	10. Jumpscare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Denadoodles: Okay here’s the prompt for the puppet au: As they are filming the Vanessa’s manor scene, Vanessa’s actor gets a little too carried away and ends up scaring the hat kid actress for real, and so the kid starts hiding in actual fear while the people filming thinks that she was just good at acting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure where to put this one and I didn't want it to be it's own fic because I want my 200th fic to be special and I'm at 198 right now and still not sure what I want it to be so I want to retain this one fic buffer I have on it. Also, this drabble is real short. So because Bow shows up at the end, I'm putting it in this fic.
> 
> Also, the Puppet AU belongs to @fedoraspooky on tumblr. Basically, all the non-human characters in AHiT are puppets or costume.

The door down the hall banged open with a mighty crash that seemed to be the loudest sound ever made. Hattie jumped, making an undignified squeak of surprise. She turned her head to see a large bulky shadowy figure step into the hall. Its exact shape was impossible to make out in the darkness, if not for its sheer size and angry glowing red eyes, it might’ve been impossible to spot at all.

As it turned its head, those eyes seemed to lock onto Hattie. “ _You_!”

Hattie jumped again with another squeak as it started shambling towards her. She bolted but her foot caught something and sent her tumbling onto her hands and knees. She scrambled to get up. While doing so, she made the unfortunate mistake of looking back. The shadow seemed to take up the entire hallway as it approached, its shambling gait getting a little fast as it reached out a clawed hand out towards her, ready to grab her.

She regained her feet just in time to avoid that fate and bolted again, making for the door down the hall. Crashing into it, she pawed at the doorknob and hurriedly got it open, allowing her to slip through and slam it shut behind her.

“And cut!” the director called out over the set. “That was fantastic Hattie. I think that might be _the_ take, good job. You too Vanessa.”

Her heart still racing as she tried to catch her breath, Hattie looked off to the side to where the cameras were. Part of her had forgotten about them. Just like part of her had forgotten that it was Vanessa in the shadowy costume. But it was just so _dark_ and the sound of the door crashing open so surprisingly _loud_. She’d never seen the costume outside of bright studio lights before, she hadn’t thought it would look so scary in near total darkness. The accidental tripping when she’d tried to run as she was supposed to do had kind of sealed the deal on her fear. And Vanessa’s voice and the way she’d moved and reached for Hattie had been…

The door opened, making her jump a little before Vanessa poke her head in. Her _real_ head, she’d taken the costume’s head off. “You did _great_!” she said with a large smile and thumbs up. Before Hattie could respond though…

“Woo-hoo! That was great, Hattie,” Bow shouted as she ran up too. “High five!”

Face starting to burn, Hattie forced a smile and gave Bow a high five. “Thanks.” She was totally going to pretend that that had just been acting especially since it seemed everyone seemed to think it was. She’d totally take the credit of being a good actor over everyone knowing she was a bit of a scaredy-cat any day.

Technically wasn’t actually being afraid good acting anyway? She’d really been in tune with Hat Kid’s character there. So yeah, she was totally a good actor and only kind of a scaredy-cat. … Hopefully the rest of the scenes for this horror episode wouldn’t be quite as scary though.


End file.
